While the name of the game has always been to blow stuff up and ruin peoples lives, this installment takes somewhat of a different approach. Normally each iteration of The Wasteland is filled with people trying to just scrape out an existence, but this doesn’t seem too true of New Vegas. Instead it seems there will be factions vying for complete control over the Mojave. People who haven’t just sought to survive, but to thrive and rebuild civilization as they see fit. It would be great if you could do that yourself. I hope you’re reading Bethesda.

In the final section of the demo, we're shown an area known as Helios One, a power facility now under the control of the New California Republic. Consisting of human survivors, the NCR is prone to promoting the wrong people to important positions, Avellone says, demonstrated by the introduction of the brilliantly-named Fantastic, a bone-headed chancer who is now in charge of running the power facility. We discover that we need to realign the power plant's mirrors to get the plant running at more than one per cent efficiency. Once done, we're faced with another option: do we reroute the power as per the NCR's instructions, or do we choose where to send it? We opt for the latter and immediately incur the wrath of the NCR, forcing us to fight our way to the roof. Once there, Avellone demonstrates the power of the Orbital Laser which (after firing down a few tame-looking energy bolts) incinerates the enemies below with a fearsome column of energy from the sky. As I note down “Orbital laser - wow” the presentation ends. The presentation is an impressive introduction to New Vegas and, while Fallout fans should not expect a sea-change in Obsidian's latest contribution to the series, the new gameplay features and storyline ought to pique your interest.

Even during the final nights they killed an antedeluvian with an orbital laser, so the whole idea is legit.